The PETA Principle: Lab Rats Over Sick Children

Washington, DC – Lab rats or sick kids? It’s an easy question to answer for the extremists at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Unfortunately for Americans who suffer from terminal diseases, PETA sides with the rats every time. In response, the Center for Consumer Freedom is running advertisements on the Washington, DC metro transit system starting this week. The ads draw attention to PETA’s unethical hostility toward the use of animals for life-saving medical research.

Today, most treatments available to those who suffer from leukemia, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease were tested on animals before human beings could benefit from them. The same can be said of anesthesia, and countless surgical techniques that routinely save human lives. Yet PETA uses its tax-exempt millions to campaign for boycotts of the nation’s most respected medical research charities, including the March of Dimes, the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (Race for the Cure).

PETA’s habit of placing lab animals above human life is so extreme that the group’s president and co-founder, Ingrid Newkirk, is on record stating: “Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it.” And Newkirk’s group has supported the violent destruction of scientific research facilities. In its IRS filings, PETA has admitted funneling over $70,000 to Rodney Coronado, a convicted arsonist who burned down a Michigan State University research lab.

The anti-PETA billboards direct Metro riders to the Center for Consumer Freedom’s website, where they can sign an online petition asking the IRS to revoke PETA’s federal tax exemption. Over 17,500 consumers have already signed the petition in its first two weeks.

Founded in 1996, the Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization devoted to promoting personal responsibility and protecting consumer choices. For more information, visit ConsumerFreedom.com.